Observation by Alex Pratt: Statue of James Clerk Maxwell

Uploaded by

Alex Pratt

Observer

Alex Pratt

Observed

2017 Jun 23 - 09:00

Uploaded

2017 Jun 26 - 22:36

Objects

Historical

Equipment

Canon EOS 500D
24mm f/2.8 lens

Location

George Street, Edinburgh

Target name

Statue of James Clerk Maxwell

Title

Statue of James Clerk Maxwell

About this image

Statue of James Clerk Maxwell, FRS FRSE (1831 - 1879) - Scotland's Einstein.

Maxwell was a mathematical physicist and his greatest contribution was in unifying electricity, magnetism and light in his equations of electromagnetism.

As a young man he studied the nature of Saturn's rings and demonstrated mathematically that they must be comprised from a myriad particles in independent orbits.

He is not depicted holding a model of the Starship Enterprise, rather it represents one of his colour wheels. Maxwell expanded on the investigations of Newton and Young into our perception of colour and he undertook numerous experiments observing a fast spinning wheel that had sectors of different colours. He showed that human colour response is based upon the primary colours red, green and blue.

Files associated with this observation

Img_8938-33PC.jpg (329.9 kB)

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Jeremy Shears, Graham Winstanley, Dawson, Mr Michael Alan Frost, Peter Carson

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